I have had such a busy week with one thing and another, including a trip to Leeds for the Stampin' UP! regional training day. Having only recently become a demonstrator, this was ll new to me and you will find out more on my Stampin' Up! blog as soon as I get the chance to pot! So far, I have just got the basic design of the blog more or less sorted - I just need to ask my son how I change the black border to the pool party or island indigo colours to match the blog header!

I came back filled with loads of ideas from the training day, and also with a gorgeous stamp set, so I am really looking forward to getting some use out of that and putting some of those ideas into practice. If only I didn't have to work in the meantime!

I have managed to find some time to use Unforgettable by Aimee Harrison Design Studios:

Isn't it gorgeous? I've linked the preview to the shop at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio in case you want to take a closer look.

I decided to make two card box sets to try and show the versatility of this kit. Whilst it is meant to be more of a Mother's Day kit, there are definitely some more masculine papers hidden in there. Whilst I was not completely successful in making a masculine card box set, these are what I came up with:

The box was a basic
template found on the internet but I made fasteners by punching out a 1"
scalloped circle on kit papers and then cut out two of the kit brads for the
inside of the fasteners. I added the ribbon
from my stash and used my cropodile to insert the eyelets.

The "Happy
Birthday" was made using the kit alpha, printed onto photo paper and then
cut out and trimmed with a background layer of paper added.

The two butterflies
were from the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Fanciful Flight die and I added the bakers twine
from my stash to complete the cards.

One of the other two
cards was made using the scraps of paper left after I had cut out the card
backgrounds, with brads from the kit covered in glossy accents and attached
using 3d foam pads. On the fourth card I
cut out one of the buttons and added gemstones. The red and green banner effect is from papers where I used
the Vintage Lace die by Tim Holtz/Sizzix. It's actually made using the left over paper once you pull off the die cut lace!

This is the second set I made:

The box was another template from the internet and the flower on the front of
the box was from the kit. I printed two
copies of the flower, fussy cut them out and then cut down each petal before
sticking the flowers together and onto the box.
I curled the petals slightly to give more of a 3D effect.

The cards were
created using papers from the kit and plain cardstock whilst the flowers were made using my Tim
Holtz/Sizzix tattered florals die. I love that die and am always using it! The
lace effect borders were made using papers from the kit and the Vintage Lace
die, again from Tim Holtz/Sizzix. The
"Happy Birthday" was from the kit alpha as noted above.

Both sets look turned out really well, and jut o to show how you can create two completely different sets of cards using the same kit. You have to love digital papers, because you can just print off the ones you need and you never run out!

I'm off to go read a book now and have a glass of wine, so happy scrapping!

Well, it's a Bank Holiday Monday so I thought I would show you what I was up to last week (unless you really want to see the payroll I've been running today instead?). As you know, I love the Project 365 kits by Digilicious Designs, and I have been able to make good use of the April kit. Just take a look at all that gorgeousness wrapped up in one lovely bundle (I've linked the image to the shop if you want to take a closer look):

It is so scrummy, I could hardly wait to get my hands on it and I was originally going to make another altered folder/smash book, but thought I would try something different instead. I don't know if you ever go to Paper Phenomenon and see what Kathy Orta gets up to, but she makes some amazing things. I've seen her videos for making a Tim Holtz paper bag album and since I managed to find some reasonably priced paper bags on the internet a while ago, I really wanted to try this out. Of course, I hadn't factored into all my workings the different bag and paper sizes between here and the USA. Why, oh why, do they have things a slightly different size? It is so frustrating, especially when I was following the video and Kathy said the measurements were x by y, so I cut the paper out that size only to find out at least one side was too short as I had forgotten about the different sizes!

Anyhow, I managed to make do with what I had, increased some things, reduced others, and this is what I ended up with (please bear in mind this is the first time I have ever made anything like this):

I used six paper bags for the inside pages, printing off pages and elements form the kit as necessary for decoration, and made the covers from empty cereal boxes. The binding is some fibre I have had for ages and had actually though I would never end up using it, but it turned out to be ideal for this. All the papers and elements are from the kit, and the only things I added were the bags, brown envelopes, binding fibre, cardstock and the gem in the middle of the yellow flower on the cover. Oh, not forgetting my distress inks as well Mind you, I did use rather a lot of ink to print all the papers, etc. out and don't even mention the double sided tape - I'm just glad I had plenty in!

Each page was set up so that the right hand page had a bottom flap for holding tags, mini albums, photographs, etc and the left hand page had a flap with tag holder underneath it and then another tag holder along the right hand side under the flap:

The above photo is the inside front page. I've kept the inside cover blank for now, but I reckon I could easily add another envelope/tag holder there. You will see on the right that there is a pocket on the bottom and inside that is a mini album. This is actually back to front in the above picture and when it is the right way round, this is what you get:

Isn't that neat? The belly band was plain cardstock which I punched out and when you open the album up, you can see there is an inside pocket with two tag holders in and a large tag. The tag holders/covers each have two tags inside, one of which has a band at one edge into which you can place more photographs, and so on.

I made large tags to fit into each paper bag, and just take a look at how they turned out:

And how could I not include that cute bird and bird house in the album?!!!

This here is another journalling mat but this one folds out:

Et voila.....!!!

Neat eh? Kathy has some brilliant ideas and I love her work!

This is another little mini album within the main album:

I still need to add tags to the pockets between each page but isn't that cute? there are so many spaces for tags, journalling, and all sorts in this album, it is a real treasure trove with lots of hidden pages.

I am so pleased with how this turned out, even though I can see all the flaws and faults in my crafting. I definitely want to make another of these, but as with all things, I need to find the time as this one took absolutely ages to make. But it was definitely worth it! I could let you see all the other photos of the album, but reckon you have probably had enough for now! Hopefully you weren't too bored.....

Anyhow, I can hear a glass of red wine calling my name now, so I'm off to celebrate finishing the album.

Well, it seems an age since Mum and I went to Alexandra Palace but we had a whale of a time. We left home early and managed to get to Ally Pally about half eight in the morning, so were able to get a parking space just outside the Ice Rink. We then had a gentle wander around to the entrance and whiled away the time with coffee and a bacon baguette which we shared!

The queue to get in was already starting to build up when we got there, hence the coffee break as mum can't stand for long, We went in after the first rush and I did think that since there were far fewer exhibitors than at the NEC we would be in and out in a couple of hours. I was so wrong in that as by lunchtime, we had still only reached the second row of stalls (we started at the bottom and worked our way back to the entrance)! I managed to spend all the money I had left over from the NEC plus some extra on top so it was a very successful day!

I still haven;t had chance to do much as yet as my other news is that I have become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I have a new blog for this (well, all I have is the original page and the blog name as I haven't had chance to post anything or even change any of the default layout as yet but I am hoping to get all this sorted this weekend and will let you know the details then!

I've actually been busy these past few weeks spending most of my time at a client's trying to finalise their 2012 accounts and today I finally managed to get the accounts finished and the tax returns filed online so I am definitely in a celebratory mood tonight. I am about to go get a glass of red wine and am only sorry I don't have any chocolate to go with it!

Still, I though I would leave you with a photo of a mini album I made last week. I used Color My Wold by Aimee Harrison Design Studios and she is a star as she even included the proper spelling of colour in the wordart in the kit!

The kit is lovely, and is definitely the sort of thing you can easily use for albums and cards, it is so versatile. I have plans to make a couple of birthday cards with this but as usual, work has taken priority....still, it is the bank holiday weekend coming up, so who knows?!!!!

Anyhow, back to the mini album and here it is:

I printed one of the kit pages on top a sheet of A4 cardstock and then folded and cut the card to make the album. the lace effect on the edges is from another kit page which I used my Tim Holtz Vintage Lace die on. I printed and cut out two copies of one of the flowers and then added a gem to the centre before gluing onto the front cover of the album.

Inside, the pages were stuck together using buttons printed from the kit to make the holders for the tags. The tags were made from the kit using papers and elements. I left the backs of the tags blank so I could add journalling, and there is space on each tag for mini photos.

I love the way this turned out and it was so easy to make, too. As usual, though, it took longer to cut out and stick everything together than anything else!

Oh well, that glass of red wine is calling my name now so I'm off to celebrate filing those tax returns!